The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-11-19
OLD JANuARY,s LAST DAYS.
fra Janree, After Many Vicissitudes of
Fortune, Dying at Last with Not
Enough Money to Bury Him.

the ominous ''Dick Deadeye" order, is gen.
orally popular with his associates, and Ira
,Janree, the veteran gambler, Familiarity
known in the sporting world as sold Janu
srv.n who died Monday in his apartments
in the Gedney House, was no exception to
the rule. 1t takes something very much
ont of the ordinary run to disturb the
eouipoise of the professional gambler, but
fhe news that "Old january had passed
away, and, still worse, the report that he
had died in poverty, produced shock in
second-story establishments in Barclay
street and Park Place.
The wasted, yet still commanding, figure
of the old man was seen on the Clifton race
track as late as two weeks ago, and the
familiar pleasantly that mo race could
start until Old January reached the track"
was quoted then as often before. 1t was
the last time, however. Next day and
thenceforward the races were started with
ont him. The disease which had been sap
ping his life for six years had taken the
form of galloping consumption, and he was
seen on the race track no more.
Ira Janree was born sixty eight years ago
in an inland town of this State. He began
business life as driver on the Erie Canal,
and was then promoted to be helmsman of
a boat Later on he came to New York,
and was for some years card writer at the
T..
upon his career as a gambler, and even
tiIally, in partnership with Elwood, more
commonly known as Eddy Cline, opened a
gambling house on the southeast corner of
Fulton street and Broadway. Business
was good in those days, and when the firm
was dissolved by Chne's death,
ne left a snug fortune of 100000,
and Janree was believed to be the owner of
a pile of about the same size. He after
MS of
which was the resort of Southerners, who
we're then flush of money and helped to
swell the pile. Later on Janree ran large
establishment at Barclay street. His last
place was on Twenty -eighth street, near
Sixth avenue, which he ran up to about six
years ago. This was one of the most hand
somely furnished gambling houses ever seen
in this city, and the suppers supplied nightly
to patrons were of the finest.
There were ups and downs in Janree's
career and while it is fact that at one
time he was worth nearly $500 900, there
were many other times when force of cir
cumstances placed him on the opposite side
of the gaming table to the profitable one
which he usually graced as proprietor.
There were also many times when he retired
from a siege with ''the tiger" with only an
Inlit cigar, held very tightly between firmly
closed teeth, as the proceeds Of a session.
which had been begun with capital vary
ing from a borrowed tri1e to several
thousand dollars. He was hot and fierce
player, pressing his luck with determine
ton, tempered by GOODNESS, and whenever
he faced the dealer, the latter kne that dis
aster to the house was by no means dis
tant possibility. He fought until the last
chip was gone, and on one memorable occa-
sion he took desperate chance subsequent
to that climax of misfortune. The story is
a classic in New York gambling circles and
this is how the old man used to tell it among
old friends when the conversation turned
upon the vicisSitudes of their peculiar pro-
feSSion:
Il had been" he would say, Sin bad luck
for some time, but had managed to raise a
stake one day and visited old Dancers place
on Broadway, near Bond street. 1t took me
but a short time to lose my pile, and l left
and went into the street. On the corner of
Broadway l met little girl selling rolls of
Iozenge5. l had only a few cents in my
pocket, and invested them in lozenges and
began eating them. l can't tell how it hap
pened. but the first thing l knew / was
Next thing l knew I had for
fun placed one of the lozenges, cop
pered, on the nine. The nine lost, and the
dealer, thinking the lozenge was a split dol
lar chip, and paid it with real split. l ate
up the lozenge, and, playing the chip open,
won again. Luck came my way, and in half
an hour l was several hundred dollars to the
good. Then cashed my chips and went
out into the cool air to rest while l went
l had about $500. The next day went
back, and the next, and before week was
over l had quite nice sum of money"
Just how much the ultimate winnings
which resulted from the coppered lozenge
amounted to the old man never told, but it
is believed that $50, 900 was not far off,
certain it is that, when the story got abroad
it, he became furiously angry, and to the
last he never forgave Janree.
Janree was a level-headed man, but he
made the great mistake of his life when he
allowed himself to become infatuated with
betting against the books. Combining him
self to the phases of gambling with which
he was by education familiar, and at which
he was natural adept, he was almost uni
formly successful. With a love for
horse racing he very easily became
a devotee to gambling on the races
and that proved his ruin. His losses on the
turf cost him his handsome Twenty-eghth
street establishment, and thenceforward he
cut figure quite at variance with that he
displayed in his palmy days. He stuck,
however, with characteristic pertinacity to
the unfamiliar form of gambling, which
tendance at all the meetings of the East
The result was as might have been ex-
pected. Occasionally he made a handsome
winning. On one occasion he cleared
$1,000 on a horse called Jake White at Mon
mouth, but this was only delusive eddy in
the course of his luck. The current was all
the other way, and the result was impover-
ishment.
Another story told of him, which illus
trates the vicissitudes of gambling life, is to
the effect that on one occasion he won $1S,
GOO at sitting, drew the money, and con-
verted it into government bonds, with the
intention of taking it home and instructing
his wife to apply them to taking plaster"
Qifting a mortgage) off his house. He was
delayed on the way home, and conceived the
idea of improving upon his good luck. He
played again, the result being that those
bonds never reached the wife's hands, and
the ''plaster" was not removed from the
house.
Two years ago Janree married young
wife, who cared for him tenderly and was
with him when he died. 81 am afraid she
is left destitute" said well-known gambler
yesterday, "but if this is so, the gamblers
will not let her remain SO. She was good
wife to old January and though people
who don't know us may not think so, we
don't allow such people 10 suffer. No; and
wish you would say that if it is true that
the old man was in destitute circumstances,
which l do not believe, he would not have